Tough times paid off

HOUSTON -- By failing last season, the New England Patriots set themselves up for success this year.

By improving last season, the Carolina Panthers built the framework for their surprising Super Bowl run.

Perhaps more than anything, those two elements provided the impetus and the drive for the two teams who will face each other in Sunday's Super Bowl.

The Patriots followed their 2001 championship season by not even getting into the playoffs -- going 9-7, a monument to underachievement, according to quarterback Tom Brady.

"There are a lot of things that have to happen to win a whole bunch of these games and to get back to the Super Bowl," he said. "Because last year, I felt we had a better team than we had two years ago."

The Patriots capped the 2001 season by winning the Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams.

Last year's struggles, however, forced the entire organization to take a closer look at itself, and bring in a strong defensive leader, safety Rodney Harrison.

"We didn't play well enough, didn't coach well enough, all the way around," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "A lot of it was the same players, the same division, similar schedules, but we just didn't play well enough offensively, defensively, special teams. ... We tried to address some of those things in the offseason and I think some of them have improved this year."

The Panthers have improved a lot since 2001, when they were the league's worst team, winning their opener and then losing 15 in a row.

They hired John Fox to replace George Seifert as coach, then set about a rebuilding project that figured to take several years.

Instead, according to his players, it took just a few months. By the end of the '02 schedule, the Panthers were 7-9, winning four of their last five games. In the finale, they won 10-6 at New Orleans, which was playing for a playoff berth.

Even an outsider -- Jake Delhomme, then a backup quarterback with the Saints -- noticed things coming together.

"The coach kept the team together,"Delhomme said, "and they believed in his system."